A sales deck is an integral part of any sales process, right? So much so, that we all seem to take it for granted. Yeah, we have a few go-to templates, maybe ran some A/B tests a few years back and just *feel* that we know what’s best.
But it’s not really a smart choice to base your sales and marketing efforts on a feeling. Wouldn’t it be better to use hard data, instead? That’s exactly what the team at Storydoc did. They analyzed over 100,000 sessions to sales decks created in their presentation maker to identify the key predictors of a successful sales or marketing deck.
Here are some of the most fascinating and actionable items of data to help you take your sales presentation game to the next level:
- 80% of people who view the first three slides of a deck will go on to read it in full.
Once they’re hooked, they will continue reading to the very end. What this means is that you should really take care of the opening message of your deck. Get it right, and your whole presentation will get the attention it deserves.
- Personalization is the single most important strategy.
Sales presentations personalized to the specific customer got a 41% higher reading time compared to generic presentations, were shared internally within the client’s organization 2.3 times more often and were read in full 68% more often than non-personalized decks.
- Interactive solutions beat static content.
One of the most important things you can do to max out the impact of your sales deck is including some interactive elements for the readers to “play around” with. It could be something as simple as an ROI calculator where your client can plug in their own numbers and see how working with you can impact their bottom line. Or, you can go a step further and add clickable tabs where your customers can browse different solutions, or even a slider with customer testimonials!
Decks that featured interactive elements were scrolled to the very bottom 41% more often and scored a 21% longer average reading time than ones that could be “just” read.
For more actionable insights, see this handy infographic:
And if you really want to dive deeper into the research by the Storydoc team, here’s the full data-driven study on sales and marketing presentations.
